Oh, brother!

I used to be surprised when a “fitness professional” said stupid things.  Now, I don’t even blink.

Since we’ve been preaching deprivation and diets in a mainstream for over 50 years, and developed a huge obesity “epidemic”, you would think the “fitness profession” (gulp, choke) would have wised up.  In fairness, many do get it, but deprivation and dieting stupidity still reigns.

Does dieting work?

No, if dieting worked, we would all be thin in America.  We diet more than any country on earth, and we are the fattest.  We need to wake up, get a clue and connect the dots.

Dieting leads to weight regain 99% of the time (when more than 25 lbs. are lost) and the average regain is 108%.  Does that sound like “working” to you?

Why doesn’t dieting work?

Dieting doesn’t work because it’s a form of malnutrition.  At any given time, more than half of all U.S. women are eating less than 1,500 calories a day in an attempt to lose weight. Almost 90% of seventh-grade girls are already malnourishing themselves on a regular basis.

Since that is not enough calories to maintain healthy body function, the body reacts.  It lowers metabolism.  It impairs thyroid, adrenal, pancreatic and other natural systems in the body.

Weight that comes back comes back faster every time a diet is undertaken, due to the impact on these regulating body systems.

My clients who have had weight loss or bariatric surgery have the fastest regain rates because of this impact – the faster weight is lost, the faster it returns.

In addition, since food becomes an “enemy”, food addiction, dysfunctional eating and eating disorders like binging and bulimia grow, destroying healthy mindsets, wreaking havoc on emotions and undercutting self-esteem.  This makes it so hard to escape the excess weight and find a healthy weight for life.

Been there, done that!  Stopped doing that too!

Stop doing that!

There are better and easier ways to adjust to a healthier weight, and keep the weight loss results.  As I approach my 12th year anniversary of sustaining substantial weight loss (74 lb weight loss 12 years ago +20 lbs in the last two years = 94 lbs total), I can teach you how to achieve permanent weight loss.

In celebration of 12 years, I have put two of my most popular classes on automatic download, allowing me to reduce the prices for you!  Check it out: Instant Access to Permanent Weight Loss.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

There’s never been a time when there seems to be more controversy about weight.  Is it really “bad” or unhealthy to be overweight?  Although it’s a common part of the entertainment industry, does it serve any purpose to call someone out for their size, shape or appearance?

Is Your Doctor Helping or Hurting You?

On one hand, it makes sense that there’s a wide range of healthy but, on the other, does the HAES (Health At Every Size) movement help?  EVERY SIZE?  Yes, we can all get healthier, no matter what our size, but it’s simply not true that you can be healthy at ANY size.

So, what’s the medical profession’s role?  Well, right now it’s denial.  No less than four clients this week reported unbelievable denial on the part of doctors in their lives.

Example:  One client has a parent who is obese, has developed diabetes and a host of other severe problems as a result.  Upon seeing the parent’s doctor (because her mother is hospitalized with a severe condition related to the diabetes), my client asked, “Is now a good time to talk to my mother about diet and exercise?’

The doctor crossed the room to the mom, patted her hand and said, “Oh, don’t you worry about that.  It’s not your fault!”

Now, that, folks, is medical denial.  And most people respect and look to their doctors for truth and help.  It’s not happening.

The same patient asked her daughter, “Am I really obese?”  She didn’t know.  No one had addressed the issue with her, even when she was diagnosed with diabetes.

My own doctor never told me I’d crossed into that territory when I was 242 pounds.  Is it unusual?  No.

In a study from the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Alliance for Obesity, it was reported:

•  72 percent of doctors said they were not trained to deal with obesity and weight-related issues.
• Only 39 percent of obese adults were ever told by a doctor or other health care provider that they were obese.

I’ve long believed there’s a healthy weight range for each of us.  It’s roughly plus/minus 25 pounds on either size of an easy-to-defend weight, or your “natural healthy weight.”

If, say, 165 lbs is a weight where you find it (1) easy to move, (2) easy to do all the activities you like, (3) you have good numbers for all the major health indicators (blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol, blood sugar, etc.), and (4) easy to maintain that weight, that’s likely your “natural healthy weight” or “ideal weight.”  It doesn’t have anything to do with what Hollywood splatters on the big screen.

Can you coax the scale lower or higher?  Yes, with effort.  We have a choice to pursue lower/higher and it may involve struggle and pain.

But, once you cross the line into an area where it is hard to move, uncomfortable in your body, I believe you are doing your body a great deal of harm.  Excess weight is hard on joints (ask my knee after 20 years of bearing excess weight!), hard on organ health, especially the pancreas which must monitor and adjust blood sugar levels.  It’s hard on the heart to pump extra blood through all the capillaries which supply excess fat with nutrients.

However, many of my clients report excess pressure tends to sabotage the movement towards health.  By not accepting a wider range of healthy, we are pushing people to attack their bodies in the hopes of reaching that “ideal” size and the result is more severe obesity when the body fights back with weight regain.

Somewhere, somehow, we have to starting telling the truth about ALL the risks:  (1) lack of awareness, (2) dieting, (3) attempting to attain a size that’s not right for your body, (4) the “public” pressure to be thin without a means to achieve it, AND (5) what it takes to achieve healthy, sustainable, permanent weight loss.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

Why?

One of my brilliant clients coined a new phrase last week when she said many of her food habits had become more engrained than simple habits – they had deepened into behaviors – they were like

“behabits.”

It’s actually a great word because behavior is deeply engrained.  We don’t question it.  We often don’t realize it’s there.  And it causes a great deal of excess weight, the type of weight that resists and derails diets.

Behabits are stable, constant, consistent and insistent.  They are deeply hooked into reasoning – they make sense to us on some level and there may be a lot of defensiveness around changing them.

Is it a habit to eat everything on your plate or a behabit?

Is it a habit to eat at every movie or a behabit?

Is it a habit to eat when transitioning to home every day or has that become a behabit, something you feel you MUST do?

There’s a standard “break-a-habit” recipe in weight loss that says you can break any habit in 21 days.

I’ve always disagreed with this theory because of my experience breaking hundreds of poor habits while I lost weight permanently (-74 lbs GONE since the year 2000, another 20 lost recently).

A simple habit might take 21 or 30 days.

But a behabit might take longer.  It is so easy to give up on change.  It is so easy to mentally work our way out of it with an excuse, a drama or crisis, a denial or a procrastinating reason.

To make changes that last, we need to strengthen our physical muscles but also our patience muscles.

It just may be the most important thing you can do, if you want lasting change.   Giving ourselves the time necessary to break the deeper engrained behaviors requires patience.  Each behabit may take a different length of time to break.

I tell my seminar audiences that it took me almost two years to feel that exercise was my “norm”, not something I “had to do.”

But, since exercise is more important than anything else we can do for our health (IMO), it was well worth the time and patience.

The Payoff

What did I get for my 2 years of patience and love?  That change has been paying off for me for over 12 years now.  I have enjoyed a lower body weight, brilliant health (I track 25 years younger in my vitals), no illnesses, and ramped-up energy.  I’ve saved tons of money on clothing, food, pick-me-ups, insurance and diet crap.

There’s also a satisfaction of knowing that I’ve had real and substantial impact on my health and my future, and continue to do so.

So, what can some applied and directed patience do for you?

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

I guess it makes customers THINK they’re doing the big job, not the little (short-term) one.

My favorite “lifestyle change” quote came from a friend who dropped a lot of weight (temporarily) during the Phen-Fen pharmaceutical debacle.

As she ordered lasagna and whipped four packets of sugar into her tea, she proclaimed “It’s not a diet! It’s a lifestyle change! I feel so different!”

Well, with real change you don’t “feel different”, you ARE different.

Don’t be fooled. My friend’s sad truth is that she was losing weight on the scale but not burning fat. She was, however, burning valuable other elements of her precious body and wound up with heart valve degeneration and heart disease. She regained the weight and developed several debilitating diseases. Today, she is very ill.

Remember, we are constantly creating the future with our actions today!

The experience of watching this sad progression helped me stay connected to my own quest for positive, healthy, sustainable weight loss.

It’s not about food, or weight.  It’s about taking charge.  With lifestyle change, we make powerful decisions and don’t let anyone get in the way of our health.

No one will do this job for us.  It’s up to each of us.  Eventually we all have to say “NO” to the diet industry that wants us fat so we can continue to be “good customers.”

The Test

You’re on a diet if: you are losing weight quickly
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you are losing weight slowly (the slower the better)

You’re on a diet if: you are focused on food change
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you are focused on behavior change

You’re on a diet if: you eat according to someone else’s plan
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you eat according to your body’s needs, discerned and decided by you alone

You’re on a diet if: you need high level, excessive exercise that constantly has to be increased in intensity, duration or exertion
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you vary exercise based on your body’s needs and it feels pleasurable (yes!)

You’re on a diet if: you’re focused on willpower and mental effort
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you’re focused on your body’s cues and needs

You’re on a diet if: food = trouble or food = enemy
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: food = energy

You’re on a diet if: you are focused on looking a certain way or seeing a particular number on the scale
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: your focus is energy, vitality and health

You’re on a diet if: you think positive change is about manipulating the body
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you think positive change is about internal change and finding peace in your life

You’re on a diet if: you’re focused on now
You’re pursuing lifestyle change if: you’re focused on the big picture of your life

Long-term sustainable change is actually easier than fighting the body and living in food struggle. But don’t tell the diet industry that little secret!

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

This fascinating book offers a different perspective on eating disorders.  If you have experienced disordered eating, or have children who might be susceptible, it’s a must read.  Parenting a child in today’s world, which is focused on controlling food, food addictions, setting up bizarre behaviors with food, binge eating and food struggle, isn’t easy.  It’s a food focused and foodcentric world.  This book helps you understand the struggle for control.

Two ways to win!

1.  Go to America’s Weight Loss Catalyst Facebook Page by clicking here and hitting the “Like” button.  You’ll be the bonus of tips and motivation every morning from the facebook page!

2.  Visit any other blog post right here on this site and post your comments, opinion or questions.  We’re always happy when you share the blog posts by using the buttons at the bottom of the page too!

You get one entry for every action you take!

Share the Catalyst experience on social media and you’re automatically entered to win this month’s book:  Just Tell Her To Stop: Family Stories of Eating Disorders by Becky Henry!

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

I couldn’t find a place to comment on her blog, but I wanted to share my perspective on her “lessons.”

Do these people look like they will find their essence in those apples?

Shay called her post “The seven biggest mistakes I made after Loser” and they went like this:

1. I stopped measuring… [food]
2. I took a break… [she says another person suggested she do this and she listened]
3. I stopped journaling my food…
4. I didn’t listen to my body… [Advised by a doctor NOT to run and suffering from chronic knee pain throughout "Loser", she nevertheless decided to run a marathon and injured herself.]
5. I thought I would be okay on my own…
6. I started caring more about what others thought of me…
7. I stopped caring… I just went into autopilot mode, delved into my work and started focusing on everything but my health.

Let me emphasize I’m on Shay’s side.  There’s nothing wrong with her reaction.  It’s very common, and it happens every day.  In fact, it happens 99% of the time we diet. I see it every day in my coaching practice.  I did it myself for 20 years!

But, let’s ask a different question:

What did she really want?

What was greater than the grueling and painful “Loser” path?

I think Shay wanted her life back, her life before the measuring, the incessant exercise, the focus on every bite, the constant assessment.

When you measure yourself, there’s a high likelihood you will not measure up.

She may have wanted her autonomy, her freedom – that feeling of having choice in life.  Freedom is a constant yearning, deep and seductive.

That yearning is what derails every diet and every dieter living by “diet mentality.”

I feel for her.  I was in her situation regaining weight many times in my life.  If we struggle for weight loss, we lose even more important things as we regain.  Excessive diet and exercise routines that push the limits of the body guarantee rebound weight, and therefore guarantee even worse feelings and emotions.

I respect everyone who wants to lose weight. I believe that, deep down, we all want to claim our lives in a powerful way and owning a happy weight is part of that quest.

I do not respect those who use and abuse people in the quest for profit, as I believe “The Biggest Loser” does.  Excessive diet and exercise routines that push the limits of the body guarantee rebound weight, injury plus long-term psyche damage.

What’s more, they know it.  They are simply willing to trade participant’s health and manipulate them emotionally for more money in their “loser” pockets.

The Natural Urge for Freedom

The urge for freedom and autonomy will always show up, and it will always WIN!

This is not a bad thing.  It’s how human beings are supposed to live:  at choice, free, autonomous, powerful.  This need, which resides at our core, is stronger than any mental idea that we should be a certain size or number on the scale.

“Diet mentality” and “diet programs” fail so often (99% of the time) because we are human and we MUST have our freedom of choice.  Any plan that comes from outside ourselves cannot be part of freedom of choice.

And the diet and addiction mindsets don’t heal anything.  Fat cannot be “fixed.”  Losing weight doesn’t solve the problem because weight is not the problem.

A Bigger Question

A better question, in my mind, is:  What’s driving my addiction?

Answer that and you don’t need to count anything.  Ever.  You won’t even need a scale.  And you won’t trade food addiction for another addiction, like nicotine, or shopping or counting.

You will know when your weight feels right and is easy to maintain.  Yes, it can happen.  For you.  For me.  I’m proof it can happen.

When you take care of yourself from a very deep place inside you, feeding, nurturing and moving your body in a harmonious way that doesn’t set off the body’s natural alarm system, weight finds its norm.

It’s something you can feel.  It’s an aliveness or vitality that you NEVER feel while on a diet or “plan.”

It’s your essence.

I hope Shay finds hers.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

For anyone who’s new to this blog, I’m a proponent of non-diet, permanent weight loss through true lifestyle change.  After all, diets are temporary ways to eat, while changing behavior and the deeper needs for food are modifications that last forever.

My weight loss is close to 90 lbs. and my weight loss will be sustained 12 years on March 13, 2012!

After years of battling excess weight and yo-yo-ing up and down the scale, often attaining and keeping goal weights for 5 weeks, 5 days (or 5 minutes!), I got wise to the diet game and began to make the deeper changes to my mental, emotional and spiritual approach to weight, health and life.

Exercise long ago became a fixture in my life. I love it. It’s the only investment of time and energy I know that pays you back a thousand times and a thousand ways. Stress-busting, muscle building, attitude adjusting… exercise is absolutely necessary for anyone who has a sedentary job. As a writer and coach, I spend a lot of time sitting at the computer. Since my weight loss clients are located around the world, I do most of my coaching by phone, which means more sitting.

I long ago divorced the idea of exercise from calories.  I exercise because my body asks for it and I have learned to listen.  It took a while for me to learn my body’s language so I could hear those messages (I spent about 20 years saying “I hate exercise” and once held a bona fide certification in couch potato-ing!) but now, if I don’t move much for a while, I can actually feel my blood moving more slowly and the congestion builds in my stress bank.

I have also learned that excessive exercise, especially with long sessions, is detrimental to weight loss because part of the body’s resiliency means it adjusts to what you give it.

Amping up exercise just to lose weight means having to exercise at that level forever.   That leads to injury or burnout!  Since my aim is long-term, sustained weight loss, I exercise in a way that is consistent and fun.

I track my exercise in the easiest possible way – by photocopying a simple monthly calendar and filling it in day by day. At the end of the month, I tally how many days “qualify” as exercise days and how many don’t.

Minimum Activity Level = 30 minutes walking is the minimum amount of activity to qualify as a session.

2009′s totals were: 346 exercise days and 19 non-activity days.

2010′s totals were: 351 exercise days and 14 non-activity days.

What do you think my numbers for 2011 are?

I’ll warn you!  It’s a hard contest this year!

Post your guess here and you’re entered!  Tweet, retweet or post on Facebook for an additional opportunity to win the second place prize!

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

What?  Doesn’t that go against common diet advice?

Yes, it does.

But my own permanent weight loss of close to 90 lbs. was accomplished by breaking just about every rule touted by “diet world.”  I don’t put much stock in “rules”, especially when so little of the weight loss from those rules results in long-term change.

But a new study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association supports my suspicions.  One hundred twenty-three women were studied and there was a difference in the amount of weight the snackers and non-snackers lost in a one-year period.  Snackers lost 7% of their weight; non-snackers lost 11%.  The subjects were on a healthy, controlled diet and the snacks consisted of a reasonable portion (100-150 calories) of healthy food.

Clearly, non-snacking eating styles were of more benefit to the study participants.

Snacking has become a way of life for our culture, although it was once considered gauche, rude, and offensive.  I remember my mother saying that snackers in the 1950s were ostracized since they were crude, or lacking in manners.

How did the snacking eating style get started?  Snacking in the diet game started for two types of people:  (1) those with erratic blood sugar who needed a period of steady food intake to rebalance blood sugar reactions in the body; and (2) folks with severe negative reaction to hunger – people who react to hunger with true fight/flight panic.  They wind up making bad choices when hungry because they aren’t dealing with WHY they experience fight/flight and solving that underlying problem.  Now, we may all experience this reaction from time-to-time, but it’s much more heightened in some of us.

Food manufacturers jumped on board, and snack foods now represent a large percentage of sales.  Furthermore, specialized diet snack foods, bars, drinks and shakes, though their effect is completely unproven and they may be utterly useless, continue to climb in sales.

Here’s where it skyrocketed, with advertising pushing the snack idea, especially for kids and dieters.

In fact, one of the major ways we’ve become snack pushers is with our children.  I’m amazed that we program kids today to believe they cannot attend a soccer practice, after-school event, or even get through two classes at school without a snack.  Kids in most schools eat almost constantly today, and move very little, and yet we wonder why the childhood obesity rate continues to rise.

In the profit scenario, however, kids at the best target because they are the future revenue stream.

I experienced the fight/flight reaction and erratic blood sugar at various times in my dieting history, but these conditions never continued unabated.  When I did the underlying work to discover what was driving my negative use of food, the fight/flight fear of not having food faded.  The erratic blood sugar evened out as I became more fit.

Bottom Line to Success: You’ve got to find what work for you, and your body.  It doesn’t matter what some celebrity does (or says she does in return for money) or your best friend swears by.  If it doesn’t help you, throw it out the window.

It’s important to remember that our bodies are constantly changing and adjusting and healing.  Just because a method of eating worked for you in the beginning of a weight loss journey does not mean it will always work for you.

We need to be flexible and resilient, adapting as the body’s needs change.

If you snack simply because you have heard its the best approach, and not for blood sugar issues, you might try omitting snacks to see if it affects your hunger levels.

I have a friend who believes the only allowable snack is a piece of fruit.  If she is hungry, she will have it, but she will not eat it (or anything) if she is not hungry.  Her belief is based on pretty sound science – she is a scientist – that suggests the body needs a break from eating long enough for the body to digest and assimilate the nutrients from food.

This new study suggests it also helps balance blood sugar to have that rest period between feedings, because it allows the body to repeatedly rebalance the blood sugar, sort of like putting the pancreatic system into training.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

Now, however, 12 years into maintaining weight loss, this holiday season is remarkably different.

Instead of forecasting and planning, which I once felt helped me“combat” the abundance of food so prevalent this time of year, I feel a complete absence of worry.

Certain foods used to “hum” or “buzz” around me.  They captured my attention, called my name, or, it seemed, stalked me!  When I was heavily (very heavily!) invested in dieting, holidays meant binging and regretting for weeks.  It meant fighting and struggling and denying and it was damned painful.

I didn’t live near my family and my trips home were fraught with fear, which poisoned or wiped out the good feelings of a visit people I was truly looking forward to seeing.  Everyone wanted to see me and, in my family, “seeing me” meant feeding me.

During my Diet Days, food had power because I couldn’t resist it.  I wasn’t at choice when I was near it.

Holiday “buzz” food included all my favorites, usually from old family recipes.  Ah! the power of “traditions!”   I could not imagine a holiday without these treats.  Deep down, as I later uncovered, I nurtured a deep feeling that I’d never, ever be able to overcome the irresistible allure of food.

Because I equated losing weight with being deprived all the “buzzy” foods I loved, I developed a love/hate desire/resistance relationship and, with those opposites pulling at me, my excess weight wasn’t going anywhere. It was sticking around, enjoying the utter lack of progress.

But, when I stopped dieting and started listening to my body, I discovered some interesting things.

1.  Many of the foods I had categorized as “delicious” or “one of my favorites” didn’t even taste good anymore.  Why did I once love that Christmas candy my mother made which actually, if I stopped eating from memory, tasted like mouthwash?  And the fudge she made?  Uggggh.  Too, too, overwhelmingly sweet.

2.  Food promised, but never delivered, a feeling of love, family, connection, meaning and belonging.  Conversely, when I feel love, family, connection, meaning or belonging (it doesn’t even have to be all of them), I could care less about food.  It was just the promise that lingered out there, never delivered.

3.  As I lost weight, I actually became pickier about what I ate, but everything tasted better.  I enjoyed food more.  I respected its power to energize my body.

4.  I became less attached.  I let go mentally of all the power I’d attributed to food.  I didn’t prescribe meanings or blanket statements like:  “I can’t eat that” (which actually meant “I don’t deserve _______ (fill in the blank).”)  I didn’t try to make myself into the “good girl” or the “weight loss saint” by indulging in the drama of denial.

With my body making the decision about hunger, satisfaction and stopping, I ceased to judge and value food in the way I did when I was gaining weight.

Ultimately, I’ve come to this day, this year, this holiday season.  I feel a freedom I’ve never felt before. Even though I was scared I would “have to give up the foods I loved”, the “buzzy” foods, I have given them up, but I feel no resentment, no lacking, no void.

I am not interested in them anymore.

It’s an irony that they disappeared, when I so feared that happening.  But they didn’t disappear because I forced them, or plotted against them, or “guilted” them away.  The path was different than a battle.

They do not have the same meaning, or power.

I was making that up.

And, having grown up out of my addiction, I no longer choose to make up stuff about food.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach

Today, there are more “diets, “fixes”, “cures”, “pharmaceutical relief” and “apps” for weight loss than ever before in history.  But our society weighs more and has MORE health problems associated with weight too.

It doesn’t add up, does it?

I searched for the answer to that riddle for over 20 years before discovering our methods of losing weight were actually creating the regain.

When I stopped pursuing those methods, I lost weight without regain (my substantial weight loss has been sustained for over 11 years now).

I came to believe I was hiding out in my excess weight, safe and comfortable in the shadows.

Carl Jung once said:  “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.”

And, while it’s true excess weight is a perfect place to hide, and it’s very tempting to live there, there is also a collective consciousness – one that is quite large and pervasive – existing around weight loss in our society.

This collective consciousness, which most of us follow and track all day, creates “accepted” thought patterns and beliefs. The accepted beliefs about weight loss for most of us are absolutely unworkable.

But we continually buy into this consciousness because everyone else is doing it.

Diets.  Calories.  Points.  Excessive exercise.  “Demonized” food.  Fast change.  Rapid weight loss.

None of it gets us anywhere, except at a higher number on the scale.

We do it because the ads promise success, without regard for the fact that a photo cannot measure lasting success.  We do it because we want the end result, without the work it takes to create the result.  We do it because we want the fantasy of weight loss and what we’ve made up it will give us.

Here are some of the reasons we hook into the the collective consciousness of diet mentality:

1.  We love the promise.

2.  We love to lie to ourselves.

3.  We love to hide from reality.

4.  We love to pretend.

5.  We love having a handy excuse.

6.  We love to play it safe.

All of mainstream weight loss is about those things:  promises, lies, hiding, pretense, excuses, playing it safe.

We know eating celery and cabbage soup, or “cleansing”, or fasting, doesn’t burn fat.  Our bodies are dumping water and wasting vital tissue.  But, it’s easier to pretend.

We know avoiding one of the major food groups cannot be sustained.  But we suffer and hope for miracles.

We know we ultimately have to face ourselves and grow up, but we’d like to stay child-like a little longer.

Imagine if we stopped the pretense and changed our collective consciousness.  Imagine if we grew respectful of our bodies, instead of treating them like machines that can be tinkered with and “fixed.”  Imagine if we deliberately nourished them with food that created positive, sustainable energy.  Imagine if we moved, often, and with joy.

Yes, it’s simple.  It’s less dramatic than suffering, resisting, restricting and being cruel to the body with excessive dieting.  So, in one sense, it is easier.

But, it means unhooking from the collective consciousness of “the diet will fix.”

And it means stepping out of the shadows.

No hiding.

A post from: patbarone.com - Permanent Weight Loss | Weight Loss Tips | Weight Loss Coach